It’s never been easier for authors to get their books “published,” thanks to the proliferation of e-readers.

But if there’s a downside to such an open book policy, it’s that the flood of new titles – short stories and novels, fiction and non – has made it as hard for a writer to get his or her work noticed as it used to be to get published. So to help narrow the field a bit, here are a few stories written by Durango authors and/or set in our corner of the world:

Cana Rising and Now Playing in Cana by Dinah Swan (Kindle or NOOK, $1.99 each)

Dinah Swan is one of the leading ladies of Durango’s theatrical community, but she’s a story writer as well as teller as evidenced in these first two entries in Swan’s “Southern Mysteries” series featuring Swan’s heroine, Mary Alice Tate. In Cana Rising, she immerses herself in volunteer work with the clients at the Women’s Center. When Sheree Delio, a white trash ex-stripper/drug addict, is arrested for killing a police detective, her first call is to Mary Alice. Alice turns into an amateur sleuth and discovers that Sheree has a motive, means and opportunity for killing the cop, but she believes Sheree is being framed. To save Sheree’s life, Mary Alice uses her sultry Southern charm and social status, but will it be enough to keep her from becoming the killer’s next victim?

In book No. 2, Now Playing in Cana, Mary Alice and her dog, Boon, discover a dead body at the Cana Little Theatre; it’s the sexy, womanizing guest playwright, Jamie O’Malley. But when she hears that her close friend, the director, Chase Minor, has been arrested for the murder, she knows that to help, she’ll have to use every resource she has.

The Silverline by Mike Wolfe ($4.99 Kindle/$9.99 paperback)

Wolfe is a Front Range writer, but his historical fiction novel is set in the Durango-Silverton area in 1907. Two lifelong best friends head to Colorado from New York after Samuel’s father dies and leaves him a large inheritance. They purchase a working silver mine from the richest man in Durango, Mr. Kingsley, but everything is not as it seems. The young men find themselves embroiled in a devious scheme and have to use their wits to protect themselves from ruin.

The Silverline has had more than 4,000 downloads and Wolfe will donate 50 percent of all net profits from any books sold in Durango or Silverton to fire-affected individuals and firefighters. Readers can email michaeljohnwolfe@yahoo.com and let Wolfe know they are local residents of Durango or Silverton and when they bought the book.

Breathless Dead by Richard Magill (Kindle $2.99)

During a frigid Western Slope winter, a serial killer is stalking the backcountry near Silverton and one underemployed and overendangered ski-lift operator is having trouble coping with the chaotic violence that has engulfed his life.

Someone he fears has threatened him, someone he doesn’t even know has attacked him, and now someone very close to him is definitely trying to kill him. If Johnny can endure the onslaught and figure out who to trust, he might make it through in one piece. But one thing Johnny is discovering about this ski town is that not everyone here is really all there ... and evil always has a way of catching up.